Using a genre-based approach to promote oral

communication in the colombian english classroom

El uso de un enfoque de generos textuales para promover

la comunicación oral en las aulas de inglés en colombia

Jose David Herazo Rivera

Universidad de Cordoba
Montería-Colombia
E-mail: jherazo4@gmail.com
Received: 7 - Feb - 12 / Accepted: 9 - May -12

Abstract
The genre-based approach (GBA) has been used in different curriculum areas to develop learners’ meaning-making potential. Using the
text as the main unit of communication and pedagogy, this approach conceives of language learning and use as a social, textual, and goal-
oriented process. Thus, it constitutes a promising alternative to the practice –not uncommon in Colombian classrooms– of teaching EFL oral
communication through memorized dialogues with no realistic purpose. Based on a revision of recent literature and research, I argue that the
GBA may foster students’ oral interpersonal communication skills because it 1) involves them in meaning-oriented, text-based, and realistic
practice, 2) assumes an explicit pedagogy that discloses the lexical and grammatical resources needed for successful communication, and
3) facilitates learners’ increasing control of oral communication thanks to their appropriation of the necessary metalanguage to talk about the
process of making meaning in English. I also maintain that this approach gives teachers linguistically-principled tools for planning instruction
and assessing learning. Finally, I discuss various curriculum and syllabus implications resulting from the adoption of the GBA for EFL instruction
and suggest specific objectives and activities with a sample lesson based on Colombian standards.
Keywords: genre-based approach, oral interpersonal communication, EFL, learning, instruction

Resumen
El enfoque basado en género (GBA) ha sido utilizado en diferentes áreas curriculares para desarrollar el potencial de la construcción del
significado de los aprendices. Utilizando el texto como la unidad principal de comunicación y pedagogía; este enfoque concibe el aprendizaje
de idiomas y su uso como proceso social, textual y orientado a objetivos. Por lo tanto, constituye una alternativa prometedora a la práctica – no
es poco común en las aulas Colombianas- de la enseñanza de la comunicación oral del inglés como lengua extranjera a través de diálogos
memorizados sin ningún propósito real. Con base en una revisión de la literatura reciente y la investigación, sostengo que la GBA puede
fomentar las habilidades de comunicación interpersonal oral, ya que 1) los involucra en el sentido orientado a la práctica realista basada en
el texto, 2) asume una pedagogía explícita que da a conocer los recursos léxicos y gramaticales necesarios para una comunicación exitosa, y
3) facilita el control de la comunicación de los aprendices gracias a su aprobación del metalenguaje necesario para hablar acerca del proceso
de construcción de significados en inglés. También sostengo que este enfoque da a los maestros las herramientas lingüísticas de principios
para la planificación de la enseñanza y evaluación del aprendizaje. Por último, discuto varias implicaciones curriculares y del plan de estudios
resultantes de la adopción de GBA para la instrucción del inglés como lengua extranjera y sugiero objetivos específicos y actividades con
una lección de muestra basada en las normas Colombianas.
Palabras clave: enfoque basado en género, comunicación interpersonal oral, inglés como lengua extranjera, aprendizaje, enseñanza.

Résumé
L’approche fondée sur le genre (GBA en anglais) a été utilisée dans domaines différentes du plan d’études pour développer le potentiel
de la construction de la signification chez les étudiants. En utilisant le texte comme l’unité principale de communication et de pédagogie,
cette approche conçoit l’apprentissage de langues et leur emploi comme un démarche sociale, textuelle et orientée vers des objectifs. Par

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conséquent, elle est une alternative prometteuse face à la pratique –qui n’est pas peu fréquente dans les salles de classe colombiennes-
d’apprendre la communication interpersonnelle à l’oral en anglais à travers de dialogues appris à cœur sans aucun but réel. Sur le fonde-
ment d’une révision de la littérature récente et de la recherche menée, j’affirme que l’approche fondée sur le genre peut promouvoir les
compétences de communication orale, car 1) elle fait participer les étudiants dans le sens, visant à la pratique réaliste basée sur le texte ;
2) elle assume une pédagogie explicite que fait connaître les ressources lexicales et syntactiques nécessaires pour une communication
réussie ; et 3) elle facilite le contrôle de la communication des étudiants, grâce à son approbation du métalangage nécessaire pour parler
sur la démarche de construction de significations en anglais. J’affirme également que cette approche donne aux formateurs les outils
linguistiques de principes pour la planification de l’enseignement et l’évaluation de l’apprentissage. En fin, je discute plusieurs implications
curriculaires résultant de l’adoption l’approche fondée sur le genre pour l’enseignement de l’anglais comme langue étrangère et je suggère
des objectifs spécifiques et des activités dans une leçon modèle fondée sur les règles colombiennes.
Mots clés: approche fondée sur le genre, communication interpersonnelle à l’oral, anglais comme langue étrangère, apprentissage, ensei-
gnement.

Resumo
O enfoque baseado em gênero (GBA) tem utilizado em diferentes áreas curriculares para desenvolver o potencial da construção do signi-
ficado dos aprendizes. Utilizando o texto como a unidade principal de comunicação e pedagogia; este enfoque concebe a aprendizagem
de idiomas e seu uso como processo social, textual e orientado a objetivos. Portanto, constitui uma alternativa prometedora à prática
– não é pouco comum nas salas de aulas Colombianas - do ensino da comunicação oral do inglês como língua estrangeira através de
diálogos memorizados sem nenhum propósito real. Com base em uma revisão da literatura recente e a pesquisa, sustento que a GBA pode
fomentar as habilidades de comunicação interpessoal oral, já que 1) os envolve no sentido orientado à prática realista baseada no texto,
2) assume uma pedagogia explícita que dá a conhecer os recursos léxicos e gramaticais necessários para uma comunicação exitosa, e
3) facilita o controle da comunicação dos aprendizes graças a sua aprovação da metalinguagem necessária para falar sobre o processo
de construção de significados em inglês. Também sustento que este enfoque dá aos professores as ferramentas linguísticas de princípios
para o planejamento do ensino e avaliação da aprendizagem. Por último, discuto várias implicações curriculares e do plano de estudos
resultantes da adoção de GBA para a instrução do inglês como língua estrangeira e sugiro objetivos específicos e atividades com uma
lição de amostra baseada nas normas Colombianas.
Palavras chave: enfoque baseado em gênero, comunicação interpessoal oral, inglês como língua estrangeira, aprendizagem, ensino.

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 Using a Genre-Based Approach to Promote Oral

Introduction Transcript 1 is the result of common

teaching sequences used in foreign language (FL)
Monica (pseudonym) greeted her EFL
classrooms, not uncommon in the Colombian
students in English, wrote the date on the
context (Herazo, 2010; Herazo & Donato, in
whiteboard, and described her favorite movie,
press). Such sequences first present textbook
emphasizing her use of was and were. Then
oral texts to model how grammar is used and then
she asked students to go to page 95 on their
require students to recreate these texts using their
textbooks and do activity 5, which showed an
own information. By personalizing the texts, it is
incomplete dialogue about a movie. Students
had to write the words was, were, and wasn’t in argued, learners engage in meaningful interaction
the spaces in the dialogue and, after that, create that leads to FL learning. A detailed reading of
their own dialogues following the textbook model. Transcript 1 suggests, however, a less promising
Transcript 11 shows two students performing their outcome. For instance, the dialogue shows an
dialogue for the class. unrealistic Ping-Pong view of oral communication
in which speakers share an orderly and equal
Transcript 1. The baseball game.
M Okay guys… speak up
amount of turns, Monica’s interruptions (turns
S1 were you at the [basebol] game? 3, 8, 10, 16) enforce students’ accurate use
M d- again BA::SEba::ll you say baseball of grammar rather than contributing content,
… duro duro a ver ((louder, louder go and most features of authentic conversations
on))
such as pauses and unfinished clauses are
S1 were you at the baseball game?
S2 yes I was missing from both the model and students’
S1 was a g- was a good game dialogues, portraying an idealized version of
S2 the game excellent but language. Equally important, both dialogues
M the game WAS
are presented as isolated events, when in reality
the game was excellent but the players
weren’t so good they usually occur as ‘chunks’ of talk within larger
1 M uh huh\ conversations (Eggins & Slade, 1997). Finally,
0 these teaching sequences reverse the logical
1 S1 who was in it? order of communication because they start from
1
1 S2 Alex Rodriguez the best of the
a grammar feature (e.g. was/were) rather than
world from a communicative purpose to be achieved
2 using grammar as a resource (Burns, 2010).
1 S2 and CC Sabathia … was the pitcher Sequences like this supplant authentic oral
3
communication and give students the message
1 S1 were they good?
4 that speaking consists of deploying accurate
1 S2 yes they were.. and the player was grammar in smooth turn-taking.
good
5 Monica’s situation as an EFL teacher is
1 M okay guys excellent but A. Rodriguez characteristic of many FL learning contexts
is not the best of the world… he’s not in Colombia: in these contexts learners’ aural
6 exposure to the new language is mostly limited
1 Author’s data. M stands for Monica, square brackets
to classroom interaction, instruction very rarely
([ ]) show pronunciation, the symbol└ shows overlap- goes beyond three hours per week, teaching
ping speech, successive colons (::) denote lengthening
of pronunciation, a slash ( \ ) shows falling intonation, materials are scarce, and large classes are the
capitals show emphasis, and translations appear in norm (Cárdenas, 2006, 2007). Overcoming this
double parentheses (( )).

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111
adverse situation requires instruction to provide are purposeful, staged, and repeated ways of
meaningful opportunities for learners to use and using language to respond to the demands of
learn the new language (van Lier, 2000). Contrary specific cultural contexts (Martin & Rose, 2007).
to this expectation, Monica’s lesson turned oral For instance, the dialogue in Monica’s lesson
communication into a futile learning experience. constitutes an ‘opinion’ genre (Eggins & Slade,
In this paper I maintain that the genre-based 1997). ‘Opinions’ seek to propose, elaborate, or
approach (henceforth GBA) and its instructional defend a view of an event, thing or people; their
model, the teaching-learning cycle, constitute basic structure consists of an ‘opinion’ followed
useful tools to promote learners’ oral interpersonal by a ‘reaction’.
communication (OIC) skills in FL contexts,
Hyland (2007) describes five key traits of
transforming teaching practices such as Monica’s
the GBA. First, it is a visible pedagogy (Martin,
into meaning-full FL development experiences.
1999) that discloses what learners need to learn
My discussion draws heavily on the Australian
and how they will be assessed. Second, it draws
version of the GBA and on Systemic Functional
on SFL to show how specific linguistic choices
Linguistics (SFL) (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004).
relate to the context of use and to the language
Unlike other approaches2, the Australian GBA has
system in general. Third, it sees teaching as
been unique in proposing a principled model for
assistance that supports learners’ evolving ability
language teaching, adopting an explicit language-
to create meaning during language activities;
based orientation to improve learning in school
this assistance occurs through “interaction
classrooms such as Monica’s. In the first part of
in the context of shared experience” (Martin,
this paper I will describe the GBA and review its
1999, p. 126). Fourth, it sees teaching as an
most representative research. Then I will make
intervention to empower students for accessing,
a case for using this approach to teach OIC in
understanding, and challenging valued texts
FL learning contexts, highlighting some of its
(Martin, 1999). Finally, the GBA aims to increase
advantages for FL instruction and research.
learners’ and teachers’ awareness of how texts
This paper ends with a discussion of some of the
work. For this it discloses the language resources
challenges and limitations of this approach.
texts use and the social reasons why they use
them. For the GBA, explicit knowledge expands
The Genre-Based Approach (GBA) learners’ meaning-making potential, that is, their
ability to flexibly deploy language to achieve
The GBA is a framework for literacy
various functions in context (Halliday, 1993).
education that places texts (i.e. coherent chunks
These features of the GBA are epitomized by the
of language larger than a sentence) as the
teaching-learning cycle.
centerpiece of instruction and curricula (Johns,
2002). It is based on SFL’s position that any
instance of social language use constitutes a The Teaching-Learning Cycle
text and that all texts are exemplars of specific
The cycle is a text-based instructional
genres in context (Christie, 1992). This concern
sequence that leads learners from joint to
for the language-context nexus explains why
independent creation of meaning (Burns, 2010;
the GBA focuses on whole texts rather than on
Callaghan & Rothery, 1988). It includes three
the form of isolated sentences. Genres, in turn,
main stages: deconstruction, joint construction,
2 For a comparison with other genre-based approaches see Hyon and independent construction. The cycle
(1996) and Johns (2002).

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concept implies that the stages are flexible and
recursive, allowing instruction to start at any
stage or return to previous ones depending on
students’ familiarity with and mastery of the genre
(Rothery, 1996). In contrast to Monica’s lesson,
where students recreated an isolated dialogue on
their own, the cycle develops students’ ability to
create whole texts3, oral or written, under teacher
guidance. The model4 in Figure 1 shows the cycle
and its stages5.
Figure 1. The teaching-learning cycle (Rothery and
Stenglin, 1994, in Martin, 1999).
In Figure 1, setting the context and building
field activities 1 occur throughout the cycle
rather than as part of independent stages
(cf. Feez & Joyce, 1998) and seek to raise
learners’ awareness of the social context and
purpose(s) of the genre under study. This
involves understanding what the genre is used
for, its context, and its vocabulary; the roles and
relationships of the people involved (e.g. formal,
informal, distant, or close); and the mode of
3 Although the creation of meaning can also occur through
nonlinguistic signs, in this paper I use the word ‘text’ to refer to
meaning that is created linguistically due to the importance of
language in the EFL classroom.
4 See Martin (1999) for a historical discussion of the different
representations of the cycle and what they entail.
5 For a more detailed description of these stages see Feez and
Joyce (1998).
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Using a Genre-Based Approach to Promote Oral
communication in which the genre occurs (e.g.
face-to-face or email). Using Monica’s lesson as
example, learners could discuss the purpose of
an ‘opinion’ text, the context(s) in which it occurs,
and the type of language it uses (e.g. evaluative
vocabulary).
During deconstruction, the first stage in
Figure 1, learners analyze an authentic model
text belonging to the genre. In this stage students
learn the rhetorical structure of the genre and the
lexico-grammatical (i.e. lexical and grammatical)
resources it uses to create meaning (Derewianka,
2003). It is during deconstruction that direct
language teaching is most likely to occur.
Following with our example, Monica could explain
the parts of an opinion dialogue (i.e. opinion,
reaction), or learners could compare several
dialogues to discover them. They could also
organize a jumbled opinion text, draw evaluative
vocabulary maps, or practice grammatical
patterns critical to this genre (e.g. be + adjective,
‘I think…’) (Feez & Joyce, 1998).
During joint construction, the teacher guides
learners to create a new text belonging to the
same genre. This stage constitutes, as Callaghan
Knapp, and Noble (1993) note, an approximation
by students to producing the genre thanks to
teacher mediation. Mediation is possible due to
the shared metalanguage that students gained
during deconstruction. For example, Monica
and her learners could construct a new opinion
text jointly, with Monica rewording students’
contributions when necessary and explaining
the reasons for doing so. Pair work activities to
create a new text, like the dialogue in Monica’s
lesson, could take place in this stage with more
teacher support.
During independent construction, learners
create another textual instance of the target genre
independently (e.g. an opinion text about a party).
However, they can still recruit the teacher’s help in
113
the form of co-editing and other types of feedback
(Derewianka, 1990). For this stage, learners in
Monica’s lesson could do role plays, simulated
or authentic dialogues, or inside-outside circle
conversations. Prior to this, learners would need
to build knowledge of the language needed to talk
about parties and decide whether other contextual
factors of the conversation are to be maintained
(e.g. roles and relationships of participants).
Each one of these stages adds to learners’
critical control of the genre, as the arrows
pointing towards the center suggest in Figure
1. An optional stage not shown in Figure 1
involves learners in linking related texts. That is,
learners relate what they have learned to other or
similar genres, and to previous or future cycles
of teaching and learning. For example, learners
could compare opinion texts in different fields
(e.g. about events vs. about people), or compare
written and oral versions of them.
As may be already obvious, the cycle
draws on a sociocultural view of development
(Vygotsky, 1978, 1986) for which language
and literacy result from an individual’s guided
participation in social, language-based activity.
Accordingly, the cycle builds on the concepts of
scaffolding (Wood, Bruner, & Ross, 1976) and the
zone of proximal development (Vygotsky, 1978)
that see instruction as the provision of graded
and contingent support (i.e. tuned to students’
ability level and offered only when needed). This
results in learners’ awareness of how language
works, which in turn leads to learners’ control of
actual language use (Painter, 1996). Abundant
research from ethnography of communication
and education (Heath, 1983; Tharp & Gallimore,
1988), cultural psychology (Lave & Wenger,
1991; Rogoff, 2003), linguistic anthropology
(Baquedano-López, 2004), and second language
(L2) sociocultural theory (Lantolf & Thorne,
2006), a detailed review of which is beyond the
scope of this paper, sustain this view of learning
as assisted participation.
114
A Review of Research on the GBA
Genre-based research has described the
written genres of K-12 education and outlined
‘generic’ learning pathways (i.e. sequences of
increasingly complex and abstract texts) for the
design of curricula6 (cf. Christie & Derewianka,
2008; Macken-Horarik, 1996; Schleppegrell,
2004). Additionally, this research has assumed
an interventionist orientation in order to improve
content area literacy in first language contexts
(Callaghan et al., 1993; Chamorro & Moss, 2011;
Cope & Kalantzis, 1993; Fang & Schleppegrell,
2010; Moss, 2010; Veel & Coffin, 1996) and L2
and FL classrooms (Byrnes, 2009a; Byrnes,
Maxim, & Norris, 2010). In what follows I review
the most representative findings of genre-based,
interventionist research.
In contrast to the purposeless use of language
in Monica’s lesson, a variety of research has shown
that genre-based instruction increases learners’
awareness of the social nature of language
use and helps them produce clearly structured
texts. This finding is consistent across different
studies, such as Coffin’s (2006) investigation
of L1-history learning, Colombi’s (2006; 2009)
research on advanced academic literacy by
Spanish heritage speakers at the tertiary level,
Burns’ (1990) study of L2-writing by adults, and
Byrnes’ (2009a) research of FL-German writing
by collegiate students. Banks’ (2000b) research
on adults’ development of L2 conversation ability
and many other studies in various linguistic and
disciplinary contexts endorse these findings as
well (Burns, 1990; Gebhard, Harman, & Seger,
2007; Macken-Horarik, 2002; Martin, 1999;
Schleppegrell, Achugar, & Oteiza, 2004; Veel &
Coffin, 1996).
Students’ improved use of specific
lexicogrammatical resources as a result of GBA
6 See also Martin (2002) for a review of genre-oriented, descrip-
tive research.
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interventions is another recurrent research finding.
For example, Colombi (2006; 2009) and Byrnes
(2009a) provided robust evidence that learners’
control of grammatical metaphor (i.e. the use
of nominalization) improved during instruction;
Cullip (2009) showed that secondary students’
L2 writing improved in use of clause types (e.g.
declaratives, interrogatives), formality, modality
(i.e. use of modal verbs), and conjunctions;
Banks (2000b) demonstrated that students
improved their ability to ask for clarification and
give feedback during L2 conversations. Research
on teaching L2 conversation using a GBA,
although anecdotal and short of detail, suggests
similar findings (Banks, 2000a; Butterworth,
2000; Reade, 2000). In contrast, Coffin’s (2006)
study and Hyon’s (1995) research on L2 reading
in college showed little gains on learners use of
specific linguistic resources, suggesting the need
for more detailed GBA research.
Another finding common to almost all the
previous studies is that learners and teachers
developed a shared metalanguage for talking
about texts. In other words, they became
increasingly able to use a student-friendly version
of SFL’s terminology to describe, monitor, and
improve the texts students produced or read
(see also Christie, 1992; Martin, 1999; Unsworth,
2000). The use of language to monitor one’s own
activity, linguistic or otherwise, is an important
step in development, as sociocultural research
in L2 has shown (Lantolf & Thorne, 2006). In
this sense, shared metalanguage became an
important mediational tool (Kozulin, 2003) for
promoting content and language learning in
genre-based teaching.
As this short review has shown, genre-
based instruction promotes learners’ ability
to use language to create meaning. Despite
addressing writing mainly, this research provides
reasons to anticipate that the GBA can also
contribute to students’ development of OIC skills
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Using a Genre-Based Approach to Promote Oral
in FL situations like Monica’s. Specifically, this
approach can raise learners’ awareness and
control of how oral interpersonal communication
is structured to respond to specific meaning-
making situations (i.e. generic awareness) and
of the varied lexicogrammatical resources those
situations allow. Since patterns of meaning are
relatively stable for each genre, oral or written,
awareness and control of these patterns can help
learners make predictions of how interpersonal
communication events will be likely to unfold,
facilitating their interaction and their use of
lexicogrammatical resources (Burns, 2010;
Burns, Joyce, & Gollin, 1996; Joyce, 2000).
Below I elaborate on these ideas.
The GBA and the development of
OIC skills in a FL context
This section outlines a proposal for teaching
OIC in a FL using a genre-based approach.
At the curriculum level, I discuss the view of
language, FL learning, and oral communication
that the proposal implies. Next I describe syllabus
aspects like objectives, activities, materials and
assessment using Monica’s situation as context.
Curriculum Level
Rather than a collection of rules to judge
correct use (like in Monica’s case), the GBA
sees language as a system of interlocking
and stratified resources for making meaning
through texts (Halliday & Hasan, 1989). In other
words, whenever we use language in social
communication, this occurs in coherent units
of meaning-in-context called texts. In turn,
texts are made up of interrelated contextual,
semantic, and lexicogrammatical choices from
the different systems of language (e.g. systems
for representing the world, for relating to other
people, and for organizing messages) (Halliday &
Matthiessen, 2004). Since texts integrate all these
systems into a visible functional unit, they provide
a model for learners’ to understand what meaning
115
choices to make and when (Derewianka, 2003).
Consequently, teaching OIC in the FL classroom
requires a focus on whole texts, their function
in society, and how they work linguistically to
achieve their purposes. This also implies that,
unlike Monica’s case, teaching should start at
the context level, by raising students’ awareness
that language use is goal-oriented and that social
situations influence the specific linguistic choices
that speakers make.
The concept of genre explains how these
choices tend to cluster in similar ways under
recurring situations (Christie, 1999), hence this
concept serves as a tool for organizing ‘generic
pathways’ in the FL curriculum7. As Martin
(2009) points out, “pathways of this kind make
it possible for teachers to plan for what can be
assumed, and for students to move from one
genre to another without having to take too much
on board” (15). Hence, a program for promoting
OIC can be designed as a sequence of oral
genres of increasing variability and complexity.
Burns, Gollin, and Joyce (1996) divide OIC into
conversation and encounter genres (Figure 2).
Conversations are interpersonally oriented and
can be ‘casual’ and ‘formal’. Casual conversations
can be ‘polite’ or ‘confirming’, depending on the
relationship between speakers. Encounters are
pragmatically oriented and can be ‘factual’ (i.e.
exchanges of information) or ‘transactional’ (i.e.
exchanges of goods and services).
Although Figure 2 shows conversations and
encounters separately, most interactions involve
a mixture of the two. For teaching purposes,
however, it may be more practical to separate
them at initial stages of learning, and then combine
them as learners become more proficient (Joyce
& Slade, 1997). Along these lines, an example
of an OIC goal in a genre-based curriculum can
be ‘to enable learners to participate in factual and
transactional conversations’.
7 See Byrnes et al (2010) for an example of a FL curriculum orga-
nized in ‘generic’ terms.
116
Figure 2. A typology of spoken interaction (Burns et al., 1996)
If we conceive language as a system of
choices and language ability as being able to
deploy those choices to make meaning in context,
then it is unlikely that using intra-sentence
grammatical “recipes”, like Monica did, will
develop learners’ OIC skills; nor will these skills
arise naturally from un-guided participation in
classroom communicative situations, as if by
osmosis (Martin, 1999). Rather, developing
OIC skills requires mediation of learners’
knowledge (Lantolf & Thorne, 2006) about how
oral texts work socially, generically, and lexico-
grammatically; as well as learners’ guided and
conscious participation in realistic situations of
FL use.
Syllabus Level
Syllabus type. The syllabus Monica follows
is organized around structures. Although students
practice language skills and functions during each
teaching unit, these opportunities are designed
and sequenced to target particular grammar
issues. The teaching sequence presented at the
beginning of this paper is telling of this situation.
In stark contrast, the GBA proposes that the
syllabus be organized around textual units, using
meaning-making activity in texts as both medium
and result of learning (Hall, 2010; Vygotsky,
1986). Since it is driven by how language works
rather than by how language is learnt, a genre-
based syllabus provides a coherent framework
to mix elements of more traditional syllabi such
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 Using a Genre-Based Approach to Promote Oral

as structures, functions, or language tasks (Feez,
2002; Feez & Joyce, 1998).
Syllabus objectives and contents. Colombian
educational goals aim to promote learners’ ability
to “communicate in English at internationally
comparable levels” (MEN, 2006, p. 3, my
translation). To achieve this goal, Monica’s ninth
graders should be able to “participate in everyday
communicative situations” and “start, maintain,
and end simple conversations about familiar
topics” (MEN, 2006, p. 23, my translation) by
the end of their school year. Due to its focus
on purposeful language use in communication,
objectives defined through a GBA seem more
likely to suit Colombian EFL educational goals
than the grammar-based objectives Monica
currently promotes. One such objective can be
to “enable learners to start, develop, and close a
conversation to buy food items in a store.”
The GBA espouses a stratal (i.e. multidimen-
sional) view of language. This means that any
instance of communication involves choices at the
cultural, situational, textual, lexico-grammatical,
and expressive (i.e. graphology and phonology)
dimensions of language (Halliday & Matthiessen,
2004). This view, as Feez and Joyce (1998)
suggest, provides a heuristics for defining syllabus
objectives and contents, as shown in Table 1 for
a unit on factual and transactional conversations
in the Colombian EFL context.

Table 1. Objectives and contents in a genre-based unit

Colombian standards

- Participate in everyday communicative situations –Start, maintain, and end simple conversations about familiar topics

Curriculum goal

Develop learners’ ability to participate in factual and transactional conversations

Dimensions of language
Context of culture (genre)
Context of situation (register) • Recognize how the relationship between partici- • Types of relationships between speakers (e.g. formal-
Syllabus objectives Suggested contents
• Understand the purpose of a simple conversation • Social context of convenience stores in the States vs.
to buy food items in a store in The United States tiendas de barrio in Colombia.
and Colombia. • Beginning, middle, and end of conversations to buy
• Recognize and use the key stages of a simple con- food items: greeting, query about availability of the
versation to buy food items in a store. items, query about cost, leave taking, etc.
pants, the topic, and the channel of communication informal, close-distant, frequent-sporadic, etc.),
influence a simple conversation to buy food items features of oral vs. written language, the vocabulary
in a store. of shopping and food.

Discourse semantics (text) • Take turns appropriately within simple exchanges • The relationship between turns: (e.g. adjacency pairs
to buy food items in a store (e.g. question/ answer, in shopping exchanges).
request/compliance).

Lexicogrammar (clause) • Recognize and use the key features of a simple • Expressions and vocabulary related to quantity of
conversation to buy food in a store. food and numeratives (e.g. ‘a pound of’, two, three’,
‘how much’, ‘how many’, ‘half a dozen’).
• Shopping expressions and structures (e.g. ‘give me
three please’, ‘how much are they?’, ‘do you have
any milk?’
Expression (graphology and • Build pronunciation skills and strategies, specifi- • Intonation of questions vs. statements; pronunciation
phonology) cally in the areas of intonation and pronunciation of food vocabulary.
of key words.

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 Teaching and learning activities. As a result
of its mixed nature, the genre-based syllabus
does not prescribe a particular type of activity for
teaching OIC. Instead, it provides a framework
for exploiting a variety of them, including those
common to other syllabi. According to Burns
(2010), a genre-based syllabus must include
preparation activities to activate students’
previous L2 knowledge; discourse activities
that focus on how texts begin, develop, and
end; language activities that provide practice
on the micro-features of the genre (e.g. verb
tense, pronunciation, and sentence patterns);
and interaction activities that require learners’
participation in realistic tasks involving the
genre being studied. The genre-based literature
provides abundant examples of specific activities
for each of these categories (cf. Banks, 2000a;
Burns, 2010; Derewianka, 2003; Feez & Joyce,
1998; Joyce, 2000; Joyce & Slade, 1997; Thai,
2009). Rather than reproducing this extensive
list, in Table 2 I suggest activities for each stage
of the teaching-learning cycle based on the
objectives proposed above.

Table 2. Activities for a genre-based unit on transactional conversations

Stages Activities
1. Teacher-guided discussion about students’ shopping experiences in their L1 and the reasons why
people use language in a store.

2. Students visit a ‘tienda de barrio’ (convenience store) in their neighborhood and collect information
about shopping exchanges in their L1, their structure, purpose, participants and their relationship,
their topic, etc. A checklist is provided by the teacher.

3. Presentation and practice of vocabulary related to food items (e.g. matching picture with word, build-
ing word maps from a vocabulary list, listening and identifying key vocabulary) and quantities (e.g.
matching representation of quantities with quantity expressions).

4. Reading and listening to a short conversation in English that takes place in an American convenience
Deconstruction
store. Students compare this conversation with the information they collected in activity 2 and draw
intercultural conclusions.

5. Teacher and students construct an explanation of how conversations to buy food items in a store are
organized. OHP presentation of this organization by the teacher using the model conversation and
a graphic representation of its stages.

6. Teacher explains how the conversation develops in pairs of turns and how these are related.

7. Students complete a skeleton table of the genre with key-phrases and structures from each stage of
the conversation. Students practice using these phrases through cloze dialogues, picture-sentence
matching, micro-dialogues, etc.

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 Using a Genre-Based Approach to Promote Oral

8. As a class, students choose their favorite dish from two options the teacher provides. Then, they list
under different categories (e.g. vegetables, meat, grains, spices, etc.) the food items needed in order
to prepare the dish. Finally they identify where they can buy those items, the role language would play
there, the characteristics of the context, and their relationship to the vendors.

9. Students organize a jumbled dialogue, similar to the one presented in the deconstruction stage, where
a person their age buys one of the ingredients needed for the dish they chose.

10. Students complete a cloze dialogue where one turn from each adjacency pair in the conversation
has been omitted.

11. Students get in pairs and, using the diagram presented in activity 5, prepare a dialogue to buy any
Joint construction
of the ingredients needed for the dish they chose in activity 8. Teacher provides assistance with
pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar as needed.

12. Teacher and students discuss the importance of acting out dialogues in front of the class and getting
feedback from classmates, and how that favors learning.

13. Students act out at least one conversation per category of food items. As they listen, students ana-
lyze these conversations using a checklist provided by the teacher (see Figure 3 below). After each
conversation, teacher and students share their analyses.

14. Teacher provides additional focused language practice on expressions to indicate amount, food
vocabulary, and key structures.
15. Teacher sets up an unfocused task (Ellis, 2003) in which a third of the class will act as vendors and the
rest will act as shoppers. For this, a small ‘street market’ is set up outside the classroom, in a bigger
room or an open space. Shoppers make a list of the ingredients they will need for the dish based on
one of the categories identified in activity 8. Vendors set up stores for each one of these categories
using drawings and labels for prices. There will be at least two stores for each type of ingredients
and they will carry different items. As a reminder, teacher and students discuss the characteristics of
Independent construction
the social context of street markets.

16. Shopping time: The shoppers go to the different stores and buy the food items they need using
English. Support is provided through a poster of the stages and elements of the genre or through
teacher assistance. The teacher can use a checklist, like the one in activity 13, for assessing students’
appropriation of the genre.
17. The class discusses how their conversations would have changed if they had been buying the food
items in a big grocery store rather than in a market, or from a vendor they know closely.
Linking related text
18. Learners reflect on their ‘shopping experience’ in EFL during activities 15 and 16. They also reflect
on the unit as a whole.

As Table 2 shows, activities in the teaching- grammar based on the cultural and situational
learning cycle proceed in a top-down fashion, contexts in which they interact.
focusing on the cultural and situational context
Unlike current genre-based literature, Table
of conversations before attending to specific
2 includes activities that involve learners in
language features (Fawcett, in press). These
researching L1 use (e.g. activity 2), and activities
activities also provide repeated opportunities to
that prepare them to learn or make them reflect
engage learners with the genre and its features,
about learning (e.g. activities 12 and 18). Activity
supporting their awareness of how effective
2 includes an ethnographic component (Heath,
speakers make choices in vocabulary and

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119
1983; Paltridge, 2001) that builds learners’ L1
background of oral genres. This component is
necessary in FL teaching because, since the
opportunities for using the L2 socially outside
the classroom in this context are scarce, learners
usually lack implicit knowledge of how the L2
works. Whereas most genre based interventions
activate students’ background knowledge using
their implicit understanding of the L2, in contexts
such as Monica’s this needs to be done through
cross-cultural comparison between learners L1
experiences and samples of L2 use. Another
adaptation is represented by activities 12 and
18, which attempt to overcome the critique
(Callaghan et al., 1993) that the cycle assumes
students’ familiarity with the ‘negotiation of
learning’ that occurs during joint construction.
In a context such as Monica’s, where learning
experience has not necessarily been a matter
of negotiation with learners, activities such as
12 and 18 seem to increase the cycle’s cultural
responsiveness (Rogoff, 2003).
Syllabus materials. The activities
suggested in Table 2 require different types of
materials including formats, tables and graphic
representations that appear frequently in the
GBA literature (Feez & Joyce, 1998; Paltridge,
2001; Thai, 2009). However, the use of graphic,
conceptual representations of the genre (e.g.
in activities 5, 11, and 16) is less common and
thus deserves special attention. Recent research
in the instructional applications of sociocultural
theor y (cf. Ferreira, 2005; Lantolf, 2011;
Negueruela, 2003) has shown that the use of such
representations helps learners’ acquire linguistic
concepts that facilitate language performance.
Hence, activities 5, 11, and 16 seem a valid
step to overcome the lack of explicit attention
genre-based instruction and research have given
to the cognitive dimension of L2 development
(Callaghan et al., 1993; Ferreira, 2005).
The GBA encourages the use of authentic
conversations to model realistic OIC (Burns et al.,
120
1996). However, obtaining such conversations
in FL contexts such as Monica’s, where the L2
is not used in everyday communication, is an
incredibly difficult task (see Shih, 1999 for a
similar assertion). To overcome this challenge, FL
teachers can use semi-scripted model dialogues
along with authentic and scripted dialogues (Feez
& Joyce, 1998). Semi-scripted dialogues include
many of the features of authentic OIC, but do not
result from real instances of L2 use outside the
classroom. Instead, they are obtained by defining
the context and purpose of a conversation, and
then arranging for colleagues or native speakers
to role-play it (Butterworth, 2000). FL teachers
can also re-script textbook dialogues using the
detailed descriptions of authentic conversations
that genre-based research provides (cf. Eggins
& Slade, 1997).
Assessment. According to Feez (2002),
genre-based assessment needs to be text-based,
linguistically principled, criterion-referenced,
explicit, and continuous. I explain these features
in turn. Text-based means that assessment should
focus on learners’ production of whole texts
and on the language resources used to make
those texts effective. Accordingly, genre-based
assessment needs to go beyond intra-sentence
language phenomena and consider aspects such
as text structure, pairs of utterances, relation of
language choices to text purpose and context,
and so forth. Linguistically principled implies
that decisions on what to assess should be based
on a systematic and comprehensive linguistic
framework, such as the one SFL provides (Byrnes
et al., 2010). Criterion-referenced means viewing
assessment as a process of matching students’
meaning-making in texts to performance criteria
from all language dimensions (Burns, 2003).
Since the GBA advocates a visible pedagogy,
assessment needs to be explicit; that is, it must
make clear to learners what aspects of language
are to be learnt and how these will be evaluated.
Herazo Jose D. (2012) Colomb. Appl. Linguist. J.
ISSN 0123-4641 • Bogotá, Colombia. Pages 109-126
 Using a Genre-Based Approach to Promote Oral

Finally, assessment needs to be continuous, 2000b; Burns et al., 1996; Joyce, 2000; Reade,
providing teachers with valuable information to 2000). However, this procedure is difficult to
tune assistance throughout the teaching-learning implement in large classes such as Monica’s.
cycle (Perret, 2000). As an alternative to overcome this practical
constraint, FL teachers can design assessment
In a GBA, data for assessing and researching
rubrics and checklists based on the descriptions
learners’ achievement comes from the texts
of genres available in the literature (Feez & Joyce,
learners produce (Perret, 2000). For assessing
1998; Joyce, 2000). These rubrics and checklists
the OIC objectives presented above, for example,
can be used for teacher, peer, and self-assessment
this data would correspond to the conversations
activities (see activity 16 and 18 in Table 2).
learners’ hold with other learners or with the
Figure 3, taken from Banks (2000b), shows one
teacher. Several authors suggest recording
example of a checklist used in peer-assessment
such conversations and then analyzing them in
of casual conversation.
detail as a means of assessment (Banks, 2000a,

Figure 3. Checklist for peer-assessment of casual conversation (Banks, 2000b).

In Monica’s context, students’ familiarity
with self and peer assessment procedures, as
well as with the characteristics of appropriate
performance, can be a limitation to this alternative
approach. However, the repeated instances for
using language and reflecting about it provided
throughout the cycle may develop learners’
familiarity with the genres being studied and
the metalanguage needed to talk about them,
facilitating thus the new assessment procedures.
Conclusions
I this paper I have highlighted the benefits of
using a GBA for promoting OIC skills in a second
language. I started with a description of this

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121
approach and a review of some of its most salient assessment of language use in large classes. All
research. I discussed that the GBA underscores these areas constitute important challenges to be
the role of explicit instruction to raise learners’ addressed by genre-based instructional research
awareness of how texts work. This awareness in a FL context.
leads to learners’ control of genres, which in turn
However, the benefits of adopting a GBA
facilitates performance (Lantolf, 2011). The GBA
to promote OIC in a FL situation cannot be
also pictures language development as a guided,
uncritically assumed. In part, because the lexico-
textual, social process that occurs through
grammatical resources needed for meaning-
classroom interaction during the teaching-
making in oral interpersonal genres differ from
learning cycle. Additionally, it sees performance
those needed in the written school genres that
as agented by both teacher and learners through
most L1, L2 and FL genre-based research has
the use of a shared metalanguage – a mediational
focused on. Rather than invalidating the claims
tool for expanding learners’ meaning-making
this paper has made, what this suggests is the
potential. The teacher’s role as mediator is
need for more classroom genre-based research,
facilitated by the grammar of the GBA (i.e.
especially in FL contexts where such research
systemic functional grammar). Since this
has been neglected. The fact that the GBA yields
grammar makes explicit how language choices
valuable learners’ language data throughout the
in different language dimensions realize and are
cycle facilitates research on learners meaning
shaped by social contexts, teachers can make
making potential, allowing for contrasts between
principled decisions on what, why, and how to
the language learners produce during joint
teach (Byrnes, 2009b; Macken-Horarik, 2002).
construction and the language produced during
Finally, the GBA sees FL development as the
independent construction and beyond (Perret,
expansion of learners’ meaning-making potential
2000). In both cases, learners’ textual activity
and grammar as a resource for meaning rather
appears to be an appropriate unit of research
than a recipe to be followed.
analysis, given its nature as the only unit of
The proposal presented in the second part meaning-making that integrates aspects from the
of the paper reflects all the previous principles. I culture, the situation, and the lexico-grammar in
argued that the GBA is likely to promote students’ a recognizable, functional and unified linguistic
development of OIC in FL contexts in a similar entity.
way as it promotes writing and literacy in L1 and
Space limitations prevented me from
L2 situations. I have provided specific examples
discussing various other aspects. For example, I
of how a GBA could be used to this end using
was unable to discuss the role of needs analysis in
the specific context of Monica, a secondary
a GBA, the way teaching units can be sequenced
school teacher in Colombia. Given the specific
in a syllabus, the integration of skills in a GBA or
characteristics of Monica’s context, I suggested
the sequencing and grading of content. Whereas
that a GBA needs to include an ethnographic
genre-based resource books like Feez and Joyce
component to build students’ background about
(1998), Paltridge (2001), and Thai (2009) touch
how language works, needs to assume a more
on some of these aspects, their discussion does
culturally-responsive orientation, needs to include
not address FL contexts specifically. Once again
activities and tools that link teaching to a cognitive
this points to the urgent need to research and
dimension of students’ development, and finally
reflect on all these issues along different contexts.
needs to devise strategies to overcome detailed

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122 ISSN 0123-4641 • Bogotá, Colombia. Pages 109-126

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THE AUTHOR
Jose David Herazo, is a full time teacher at Universidad de Córdoba (Montería, Colombia), where he works as a pre-service teacher
trainer in the English as a Foreign Language department. He holds a Master’s degree in Education and is currently a third year doctoral
student at the University of Pittsburgh (USA). He is member of ESCU research group at Universidad de Cordoba. He has published in
Colombia and abroad, and has presented in numerous conferences.

Herazo Jose D. (2012) Colomb. Appl. Linguist. J.

126 ISSN 0123-4641 • Bogotá, Colombia. Pages 109-126